Thursday, October 10, 2013

Chocolate

"I've never gotten drunk at a Chocolate bar, but I will try anything once."~ A.N. OnymousChocolate is the very last of the Six Major Food Groups (as recommended by the National Board of Health and Safety) about which I haven't written yet. The other five being: Pizza (see 'blog-entry from January 24th, 2013), Ice Cream (see 'blog-entry from January 18th, 2013), Beer (see 'blog-entry from October 11th, 2012), Potatoes (see 'blog-entry from February 8th, 2012), and Coffee (see 'blog-entry from March 25th, 2010).Chocolate is a processed, typically sweetened food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma Cacaotree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America.Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:The word "Chocolate" comes from Nahuatl "xocolātl", from "xococ" ("bitter") + "ātl" ("water"). The majority of the Mesoamerican people consumed Chocolate made into beverages.While Chocolate isn't primarily a breakfastary item, it can be found in many early morning meals:Chocolate chip pancakes or waffles, Chocolate crêpes, Chocolate croissants, Chocolate doughnuts (either just covered in Chocolate or the Full Monty of Chocolate-y goodness where it is made with a Chocolate batter and Chocolate topping), Chocolate babka, hot Chocolate, Mocha Lattes, and even Chocolate cake (Bill Cosby would never lie to you). I am sure there are many of you meatatarians that would love to have Chocolate-covered bacon with your breakfast, too. And who among us hasn't gone a little "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs®" sometime in our lives?There are three major types of Chocolate: White, Milk, and Dark. White Chocolate commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids, and salt; it does not contain any cocoa solids. Milk Chocolate is solid Chocolate made with milk added; it should contain between 20-25% cocoa solids. Dark Chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa (usually containing little or no milk); it should have minimally 35% cocoa solids, but can range as high as 70-99% cocoa solids. I really like the darker ones; the bitter, the better.And no matter what Forrest, Forrest Gump says, you know exactly what you are getting with a box of Chocolates… life!